Miserable but Not Alone
by Manny-Elaine
Summary: full summary inside, newest Againstshipping story! Staring Manny and Brian for the first time! R&R please! i know it says friendship/hurt/comfort, but its also a romantic drama. i think it'll be good so u tell me for yourself!
1. Chapter one

**Disclaimer: I don't ownPokemon or any of thc haracters.**

**a/n i got this idea because im pretty much on the verge of miserable.**

**summary: Zoey Bruno has no friends, and that's the truth. once she came to middle school, all her elementary school friends left and became clones. now that she's alone,  
can she find someone to relate to? enter Paul Samuels, who only hangs out with his cousin, and her friend, and his brother and sisters. Can the two become friends and learn that... they aren't alone?**

**AGES:**

**Paul: 15  
Zoey: 14  
Manny: 14  
Brian: 15**

**~!#$%^&*()_+**

CHAPTER ONE:

When you look up the word miserable in a dictionary, you get wretchedly unhappy,  
uneasy or uncomfortable.

When I thought of the word miserable, I thought of myself.

Hi. I'm Zoey Bruno and I have probably the WORST life imaginable. I live in Veilstone City with my five brothers and 10 sisters, my pregnant mother and third step dad, but that whole... process is a story, one for another time.

Because we have 16-and-one-more-on-the-way kids, we are the second biggest family in Veilstone. The biggest is 18 kids, and that's the Jovato family, who have 9 girls and 9 boys, all one year apart. I don't hang out with them, because they are upper class and I'm middle class, and becasue they are richer, they MUST be better.

Anyway, I also don't hang out with them, or pretty much anyone, because I'm a loner. When I came to middle school, my only three friends, Dawn, Kayla, and Jen left me to become popular trend-followers, leaving me to be myself by myself.

I'm in eighth grade now, still alone. But I guess I don't mind as much, because I do have my family, well, my REAL family. Three of the boys and one girl are my real brothers and sister. Maylene is older than me, and is older than all the girls, who are all 16 (every single one of them), but a year younger than the two other boys, who are 18 (twins). Me, and two of my brothers, Percy and Angelo are triplets. Joey, the other boy, is younger by two years.

I guess I should explain how all the girls except Maylene are all sixteen.

Remember how I said this was my third step dad? Well, only four of the kids are his. The two boys and two of the girls, Pete, Zak, Melissa and Marrissa. The girls are twins and so are the boys. From my mom's third marriage (step dad number two, came two more girls, Aliana and Alexandra, or Ali and Alex. Then came step dad number one: the rest of the five girls, Tracii, Lacy, Macy, Kaycee, and Stacey.

Before was my real dad, and my mom kicked him out the door when I was six, so Joey was four and Maylene was nine. All the other husbands have been put in jail, forcing my mom to take care of their daughters and sons because their REAL mothers are all either drug addicts or also in prison or just refusing to take care of their own kids.

We have a pretty big house for all these kids, but me, Maylene, Tracii, Marrissa, and Melissa all share a room. All the boys share, and the rest of the girls share a room. Somehow, we're able to afford a TV for every bedroom, including my mom and Ritchie's room (Ritchie is step dad number three's name), the living room, the family room, and the computer room. Speaking of computers, we can also afford at LEAST 10 laptops and three desk computers. (I actually have my own laptop that I saved my birthday money for for about 3 years. I got about $200 each time, plus with more coming in from my relatives, aunts, uncles, my many grandparents who all "love" me even though I've only known them for like two years then their sons get put in jail.)

Anyway, that's where I am now: lying on my top bunk in the bedroom I share, clicking on my laptop. I didn't really do anything except listening to music and play games. I didn't really like a trackpad, though, so I would bring up a solid platform (most of the time a broken down cardboard box) and put it on there with a mouse. Also the reason I'm here is because my step sisters have their friends over. Angelo, Pete and Zak went to a skate park, Percy is at the library, and Joey is over his friend, Antwon's house. Maylene is reading underneath me.

"ZoZo, we gotta do something." Maylene is the ONLY one allowed to call me ZoZo, because she's my favorite sister. Joey is allowed to, because that was the nickname he gave me when he was four and still couldn't say Zoey properly.

"Do what?" I said not looking up from my crossword as a mix of pop, R&B, alternative rock, hard rock and country played from PokeTube.

"I don't know, go to the mall and look at FYE or Border's or something. Just get away from the girls worrying about their nails and their hair and make-up."

See, this is why I love Maylene, because she knows that there is more to life than looking your best. Like Pokemon training. I don't really tell too many people, but I'm a trainer. In fact, my four out of five of my Pokemon are on my bed now, Glameow, Misdreavous, Shellos (the pink kind), and an Eevee. Maylene, Percy, Joey, Angelo, Marrissa, Melissa and Tracii are trainers too. Maylene is the Veilstone Gym Leader, and the girls are Co-Ordinators, as I am. Percy, Joey, and Angelo get badges. When they go to a city to get them, I sometimes go with them.

"Yeah I guess so." I saved my crossword puzzle, shut my lap top and put my pillow over it. I returned all my Pokemon to their PokeBalls, and hopped off my bed onto the ground. I probably gave Maylene a heart attack because she jumped a mile off the bed, which probably wasn't a good idea because we're on the second level.

"Really?" Maylene looked totally dumbfounded, because I don't really go out in public, because my step sisters say that if anyone found out that we live in the same house, they'll be embarrassed since all I wear is black and I'm really pale. Plus I refuse to do anything involving the color pink.

Anyway, we went to the mall, and just walked. I still had money left over from my laptop, which was about $120. I did spend some on three CD's, Avril Lavigne's Under My Skin, Linkin Park's Metoera, and Carrie Underwood's Play On. That was about $30 but whatever. Maylene got a CD too, Justin Bieber's My World. I would have bought it, but I knew she was going to get it. So what's the point?

We got lunch there, then walked home. That night as I lied in bed around midnight, my headphones in my ears, my Pokemon snuggled around me, I couldn't help but wonder...

Is there someone else out there? I thought, Nobody's Home on Avril's CD blasting in my head, Is there someone like me? Miserable, trying to find... something, a miracle to fix everything. To make me happy again. Make my life enjoyable.

If there was, I wanted to meet the person that would help me.

I did.

**~!#$%^&*()_+**

**A/N and there is the first chapter! I have three more written, but my dad's computer is messed up, so I can't save all of them so I'm holding them as drafts on AOL. xD lol there isnt enough space on our hard drive disk to save anything else, so I have to wait until my uncle comes to Connecticut from North Carolina and fixes this stupid thing. =) haha. oh well. after i post this i'm gonna delete it so I can upload the other chapters.**

**Review, favorite, alert, tell everyone u know, Miserable But Not Alone has begun!**


	2. Chapter two

**Disclaimer: still don't own Pokemon!**

**A/N okay here's chapter two!! R&R!**

**Let's roll! (lol iforgot 2 do that in chapter one .xD)**

**~!#$%^&*()_+**

**CHAPTER TWO:**

In school the morning after Maylene and I went to the mall, I noticed there was a new kid and a new girl in all of my class. Well, all my classes before lunch, which was at twelve thirty. I sat near the back, and so did the boy, but the girl sat right up at front.

They were obviously twins, because they both had straight purple hair and black eyes. The boy's hair was to his chin, and a some of his bangs went into his left eye. He didn't seem to notice. The girl's hair went to her mid back. They were both dressded in dark colors:

The girl wore a dark blue shirt with a gray sewed on vest and a black sewed on tie, a pair of black skinny jeans and white Uggs. The boy wore a black and blue sweatshirt,  
black baggy jeans and blue sneakers.

The girl (I found out her name was Alicia) seemed happy, considering she was always smiling, but her brother (I hadn't heard his name) seemed...

Miserable.

He looked like he'd rather be anywhere else than here. He was as pale as I was, if not paler. He was tall too, because when we were going to second period, he walked by me and I had to look up a bit, and I'm tall for my age and weight, which is like 90 pounds.

Anyway, I didn't say anything to either one of them at all. But I did see them at lunch. They sat with a girl Manny, and her friend Brian. They looked like friends all ready, but I later learned that Manny and the twins were cousins, and because Manny and Brian had been best friends for a while, Manny introduced them.

So. I caught the boy looking at me a few times. He would look for a second longer, then go back to his sandwich, or take a sip of chocolate milk. Finally, when he had got up to throw away his tray, he didn't to back to his seat.

He sat down across from me.

He just looked at me and said, "What's wrong?"

How he knew, I'll never know.

I just faked a smile and said, "Nothing."

The boy (I still didn't know his name) stared into my eyes for awhile, and I could practically see him getting through the fake smiles and lies.

What he said next really surprsied me.

"Tell the truth."

I felt like crying after I told him how miserable my life was. Lunch lasted almost an hour and a half because we had a free period afterward. I saw Alicia trying to come over here, but Manny and Brian stopped her and led her somewhere.

He (his name is Paul) listened, and didn't interupt or ask questions or anything. Just.  
listened and understood.

"And that's my life." I finished. I looked at my hand. I was shaking. I don't know why; I was so relieved to finally tell someone that wasn't certified in Child Psycology.

"Wow. And I thought I had it bad."

"What happened to you?"

"Up until I was 8 years old, I lived the life every 7 year old dreamed of: a funny twin sister, an adorable younger sister and a cool older brother. Plus two parents that love you to death. Well, I woke up on my 8th birthday, expecting a cake with candles, surrounded by my parents and Reggie, my brother and Cyrstal, my younger sister. But, instead, Cyrstal was sitting on the counter. Alicia sat on a stool and so did Reggie, next to each other. Reggie was 13, by the way. Cyrstal was 5. Reggie was holding a... a letter. It was from my parents. They said they were sorry, but... they had to leave."

I gasped quietly.

"I haven't seen them since. I'm fifteen now, so Reggie is 19, and Cyrstal is 12. And honestly? I don't miss them."

"How come?"

"They left us. Our only relative in Sinnoh was in Jubilife City, and he's my Uncle Billy. We moved in with him, and I hated it there, because I grew up here in Veilstone. We moved back here last week, to the same exact house, too. I still have the letter. Sometimes... I read it to myself."

"I think you have it worse."

"Nah, you do. I'm with my real family. You're living with girls and boys you probably haven't even known for over two years."

"Why don't we agree both our lives suck?"

"Yeah. But- Never mind."

"What?"

"Nothing."

"Tell me."

He looked in my eyes again.

"Last night, I was listening to music, alone in my bed, just staring at the ceiling, when I started thinking. Do our lives have to suck this badly? Is there anything we can do to make it better? Find someone to help?"

"I know exactly how you feel. Last night, the same thing happened to me. I was listening to a sad song and I thought the same exact thing. I thought that they has- there just HAS to be a way to fix everything. Make it better. Make life better. Not just for us but for our families too."

"I know. There must be something better than... than being miserable."

"Exactly."

We really clicked, and that'd never happened to me before, except with my own family. We stayed there, until the bell rang for seventh period. For the rest of the day and the next few days, we had a silent understanding.

A secret bond, I guess you could say.

**~!#$%^&*()_+**

**A/N sorry its so short! =) aw well! dont know how long the story in all will be, probably maybe... 7 chapters? more? less? i dont know, al i know is that three and a half are written!! =)**

**R&R!**

**Manny's rollin out! (lol forgot this in chapter one too...xD)**


	3. Chapter three

**Disclaimer: still don't own Pokemon!**

**A/N get ready 4 chapter three!! R&R!**

**Let's roll!**

**~!#$%^&*()_+**

CHAPTER THREE:

We didn't really say much to each other for that week, but our eyes would meet and I'd remember I'm not alone. Miserable, but not alone. I hoped he thought the same thing.

Friday, last period we had a substitute, and I had to skip lunch and free period to catch up on work I was missing even though its only October.

Anyway, we had one of those teachers who didn't really care and just went to sleep.  
So, Paul came over to me. Alicia, Manny and Brian aren't in this class. They have math, this is social studies. I have math 3rd period, so does Paul, and they have social studies 3rd.

"Hey." he said, sitting in the chair next to me.

"Hi." I said smiling a bit.

"Uh, I was wondering..."

"Yeah?"

"If you wanted to, uh, hang out tomorrow or something. My brother has a million video games, if you like video games. You said that you weren't into all that... girly crap, so I thought- you know."

I could tell he wasn't the kind to get embarrassed easily, but he was turning pretty red.

I said, "Sure. And as a matter of fact I do like video games. I'll... be there at three."

The next day, I walked to his house. It was warm out, so I wore a short sleeve black shirt and dark blue jeans and tan hiker boots. As I walked, I twirled my scarlet bangs, wondering what to say.

When I got to his house, I knocked on it. A tall man with black hair and eyes opened the door. He was really tall, I had to look up. I thought Paul was tall. He made him look tiny. I figured I was at the wrong house.

He looked down at me, and said, "I'm guessing you're one of Alicia's friends," warmly and smiling.

I shook my head no and answered, "Actually, Paul invited me over."

He cocked an eyebrow.

"Seriously?"

I nodded.

Just then, Paul appeared next to him, and said to him, "I did, Uncle Billy."

Paul's Uncle, Billy, looked REALLY surprised. I guess Paul didn't invite too many friends over.

"I'm sorry," he finally spoke, "but really?"

"Don't you have to go to work?" Paul replied, cocking an eyebow the way Billy did. Guess it ran in the family.

Anyway, Billy looked at his watch and said, "Oh shoot. I'm leaving! It was nice meeting you, uh..."

"Zoey."

"Well it was nice meeting you, Zoey. Bye!"

With that, he was out the door, and I took his place inside. Paul closed the door behind me. I took off my boots by the door, where other shoes were.

"Before anything else, I have to tell you something." Paul said.

"Tell me."

"Alicia has friends."

"And that is bad because..."

"After I invited you over, she invited five girls over. They're all up in her room now. I told her someone was coming over, so she knows you're here, but if you hear a girl squealing some celebrities name, that's why."

I smiled and said, "Don't worry. 9 step sisters, remember?"

"Yeah I remember." I saw a very sublte, small smile appear on his face, but it disappeared as soon as it came.

Next thing I knew, we were playing a video game. It was of those backward games, where instead of poachers kill the Pokemon for fur, the Pokemon are the shooters and shoot the rednecks. I loved these types, because, I mean, its just wrong to kill for human's pleasure. Paul agrees with me too.

We played on two player mode and topped his brother and uncle's high score of 12,309 rednecks to 16,981 rednecks. We wrote ZBANDPS when we had to write who scored it. We played for about an hour like that. Then, we went on challenge mode: who ever shot the most rednecks in two minutes would win, and the loser would have to do something.

At 15 seconds left, I was down by twenty rednecks. Then by some pure struck of luck, I won. I don't know how, but I beat him by two points. He sighed and said, "Good game. Rematch?"

"Uh, uh, nope. We had a deal."

"Yeah I was hoping you'd forget." he smiled, and this time it stayed for a while. I smiled too, because I'd been thinking for a bit.

I asked if he had a jar of pickles.

"Uh, yeah, why?"

The next thing HE knew, he was chugging pickle juice from the jar, trying not to spill it on himself. Unfortunately, he did on accident, all over his sweatshirt. He put the jar down and looked at me.

"Wanna hug?" he said smirking with his arms open wide.

"No thanks, pickle breath." I said smirking right back. He came towards me, and I shrieked and ran. He ran right after me. The kitchen, living room and dining room were all connected, so it made a circle.

Finally, of course, he did catch up to me when I turned around to taunt him. It probably wasn't my BEST idea, because before I knew it, the smell of pickles was overpowering. His arms were around me and I was laughing and coughing at the same time.

Then his smile vanished, and a blush returned to his face. One came to my face too, because I realized how tight he was holding me. I didn't really care that all I could smell was pickles.

Then, our eyes were closing and our heads tilting.

We probably would've kissed, when another boy came in.

He was tall too, taller than Paul, but shorter than Billy. He had shoulder length purple hair that was back in a ponytail, and black eyes, like the rest of his family. He wore an orange collar button down shirt, tan pants, a green apron, and white socks.

He cleared his throat, and Paul turned a deeper shade of red. We pushed away from each other as I turned the same color as him.

"I don't know what's weirder: a girl I don't know about to kiss my younger brother, or the fact that she's down here with you instead of with Alicia." then he sniffed, scrunched up his nose and said, "Is that... is that pickles?"

"Uh...." Paul started, "its a long story."

"Uh yeah... Anyway, I was going to grab a water bottle." he, Reggie, took one from the refridgorator then said, "You can... go back to what you were doing."

"We weren't-"

Reggie was already gone before Paul could say anything else.

I was still pretty red and so was he. We silently agreed to never speak of what just happened again.

After 10 awkward minutes, we went back to video games, but this time, we played Rock Band 2. Paul played guitar, I played drums. We did pretty good at forgetting, but now we had a whole new bond. Not an _I-can-relate-to-you-you-can-relate-to-me_ kind of bond, but, like, _we-almost-kissed-and-almost-got-caught bond_, I guess.

After of two hours of video games, I got a text message, saying I had to come home soon for dinner.

Paul walked me home. It was nice of him, because he really didn't have to. I only lived a few blocks away.

When we got to my house, he waited at the end of my driveway.

"Well, thanks for... inviting me over. I had fun." I said, ignoring what had happened.  
"Yeah. I did too."

Before I could say good bye, Paul put his hands on my face and pulled me into him.  
Then he kissed me. His eyes were shut, so I shut mine too. I put my hands on his. He pulled away, and took his hands back.

"Uh, I'll s-see you Monday." he was blushing again. I just smiled and said, "Okay. B-Bye."

"Bye."

He turned around and quickly walked away.

I was still standing there, smiling like an idiot for a good two minutes before I walked to my house. When I got inside, I leaned on the door and kept smiling.

"So she DOES smile sometimes; its not just a rumor." Macy said sarcastically. I just rolled my brown eyes. I was in too good a mood to have it ruined by some 16 year old brat.

"Why I'm smiling," I responded, "you'll never know."

I ran up to my room, and found Maylene, Marrissa, Melissa and Tracii there, playing Blackjack on the floor with at LEAST three sets of cards.

They all said hi, and I said hi back. I climbed up onto my bed and got the radio remote. I didn't know what CD was in, but I clicked play. It was Demi Lovato's Don't Forget. La La Land played loudly, but I didn't really care. Neither did the girls. They were used to me blasting music.

I was in la la land, alright.

**~!#$%^&*()_+**

**A/N wow i thought this one would be longer. OH WELL!! =) this is the last chapter for now! im gonna write chapter four soon! u know the stuff, stop drop and roll, yell at the sky, talk in weird voices, review, fave, alert, and dont eat beavers!**

**Manny's rolling out!**


End file.
